


Help Him Out

by twowritehands



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Bad Matchmaking, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Mama Bear Dani, hint of Malcolm/Edrisa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 09:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20905382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twowritehands/pseuds/twowritehands
Summary: After hearing Drunk Malcolm's confession,  Dani goes home to Gil. Some mothering instincts have kicked in, and now she has an idea.





	Help Him Out

Dani let herself in the kitchen door and tossed her keys onto the counter. Gil turned from his stove top. He was wearing his robe over an undershirt and his flannel pajama bottoms. He smiled at her and waved a spatula, "Stir fry's on."

"Smells good, babe," Dani crossed through the kitchen and slid her arms around his middle, chin on his shoulder.

"Malcolm OK?" Gil asked.

"Hm Hm. Got him home. Your boy is a dopey fall down drunk. So he's got that going for him."

Gil chortled. "He charmed you."

"You gonna pretend like he doesn't charm you on the regular?"

Gil made no answer but to smile and nod as he scratched the simmering vegetables around in his skillet.

"I think he likes me," Dani announced.

"Oh?" he was trying for casual. But Dani could practically feel the flare of territorial jealousy inside the ribcage she held.

"Yeah he showed me his comic book villain wall of knives."

"Ha! He does kind of live like a super villain, doesn't he?"

"Uh, in a swanky clock tower loft with a bird for a roommate and bondage gear _ made _ into the bed? Yeah. Villainy as hell."

Gil looked over his shoulder at her, eyebrow up. "You helped him to _ bed _?"

"Yeah. Buckled him in nice and safe." When Gil turned in her arms and gave her a look she played innocent. "What? He _ asked _ me for help."

Scoffing and going back to his meal prep, Gil shook his head, murmuring, "He definitely likes you, then."

"Uh oh," she turned to the cabinets and pulled out place settings for the table in the middle of the small kitchen. "Are you going to mark your territory?"

"Maybe."

Setting the table, she wagged a finger at him, "Don't pee on any of my stuff."

"Ha ha so cute."

Table set, Dani went to the fridge and pulled out fixings for tossed salad. She began throwing it together on the limited counter space beside the stove, shoulder to shoulder with Gil. 

"You got nothin' to worry about, babe. Really. I mean I'm not even sure people register with him on that level."

"What makes you say that?"

"He said he doesn't sleep with people." To this the man shot her a look that said plainly, _ you're not going to buy that line are you? _She shrugged. "He said he has sex but that he doesn't share a bed with anyone. Like. Ever. Which tells me he's never had anything even remotely serious."

"Well," Gil sighed. "I don't have to tell you why, do I?"

"Actually, my reasoning skills got me all the way to detective so. I'm good. Thanks."

Gil chuckled and kissed her cheek. His hand lighted on the small of her back, drifting down over the swell of her ass. Then he hummed. "Hmm. He's probably better off alone right now, anyway."

"Whaaaat?" Dani teased, putting the salad on the table and opening the fridge for some drinks. "I never thought I would see the day when Gil Arroyo would say someone is better off alone."

"Whoa," Gil intoned throwing up his hands in a playful surrender. "I thought we were talking about Bright, not calling me out on my issues." Dani giggled and knocked her hip into his. He turned off the stove eye and scooped the stir-fry into bowls. "And I didn't mean _ alone _, alone. I just meant--Single."

"Yeah I know," Dani sat down in her chair and Gil sat down across from her. They reached for each other and laced their fingers. "But just think," she said. "If he could meet someone who gets him. Like really gets him the way you get me…" She shrugged. "Maybe he'd be less…" she lifted her other hand and tilted it this way and that.

Gil looked doubtful. "He's got a lot of baggage to let go first."

"We should help him."

"What, do you think I call him in as a consultant for my health? Because I love the paperwork required for amputations or snake bites?"

"But more than just that. We should help him meet people. Normal people."

"Bad idea, sweetheart."

"Nah," she looked into the middle distance, all of her gears turning in her head. "I got a gut feeling. I'm going with it."

"Dani…." Gil sounded tired.

"So," Dani perked up and leaned on her elbows. "What's he go for? Women? Men? Both? Everything in between?"

Gil sat back in his chair. He knew better than to fight her on this. He passed a hand over his eyes, the only give away that he was at all uncomfortable by the topic. "Uh… the last one. I think."

Dani's lips squirmed. "Yeah? Is there a story of Gil with his foot in his mouth I should hear?"

"Not one you _ should _ hear, no."

"Haha! What happened? He brought his significant other over and you misused pronouns? Did you get totally lost in the terminology the trans community uses to describe their world? Come on, you know I love it when you show your age."

"Which is weird, by the way. How many times do I have to tell you, a man wants to be a daddy to his woman. But not be her actual dad."

She held up her hands in the same surrender he'd done earlier. "Whoa. Now we're calling _ me _ out?"

Gil was beaming at her with a big smile and so much love. But she still wanted the story so she waited.

He sighed. "He didn't date until he was in college. His first ever girlfriend was over for dinner one Christmas, and I made a comment. Something about how she must have been as a girl. She just came right out with, _ oh I still thought I was a boy back then _. Aaaand I choked on the ham. Legitimately, choked. Couldn't breathe. Going blue. On my way to see my dad again. Jackie had to do the Heimlich, and I puked on Malcolm's eleven thousand dollar Italian leather shoes."

Dani burst out laughing but tried to reign it in, apologizing. Gil's foot nudged hers under the table and they laced fingers again.

***

Fighting a pounding headache, Malcolm sipped his mother's miracle hangover cure recipe and selected his card of the day.

_ Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. _

"Good one," he announced to Sunshine who tweeted an affirmative sounding response.

"A state of mind," he repeated and exhaled. "And if there is only _ one _ thing in the world we _ can _ control, it's our state of mind. Right, Sunshine?"

No answer from the bird this time. Malcolm pouted in the parakeet's direction, but she had no further interest in him at the moment. He sighed, then picked up the remote and turned his stereo on and all the way up.

_ Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? _

_ And we wouldn't have to wait so long? _

_ And wouldn't it be nice to live together _

_ In the kind of world where we belong?… _

He hopped down from his stool and fell forward straight down into a push-up.

Fear is nothing more than a state of mind.

What did he have to fear?

The girl in the box. The cold dread and rabid fear surrounding his memories of the girl in the box. 

Just a state of mind. 

Because whatever happened, he survived it right? It was real then, but it was not real now.

Fears are just a state of the mind.

The new memory of being drugged by his father put a terror in his bones that was as cold as ice and heavy as lead. But that was a state of mind, too. Because it was not real anymore. His father could never drug him again. Ever.

As he moved on to yoga, he heard something in between the pause between tracks. Someone was pounding at his front door. He shut off his stereo and went to answer it.

Dani Powell held up a bag from a nearby greasy spoon. "I brought eggs. Best food for hangovers."

"Thanks," he leaned on the door, not unaware of his glistening muscles under the clinging fabric of his pajama T-shirt or that he was letting a slither of abs show by leaning on one raised arm. "But I've been up for three hours. Feeling fine."

"Three hours? Bright, it is _ five _ in the morning."

He shrugged. "I'm an early bird."

She scoffed. "Whatever. These smell good so they're mine now. Can I please come in and eat my eggs before they get cold?"

Stepping aside, he let her in. Her dropby wasn't surprising to him. Most women wanted to save the tortured guy with the piercing eyes and the great body. It wasn't her fault.

He was going to let her down real easy. It would be for the best not to sleep with her. She worked with Gil. Definitely not a good idea.

"You didn't have to bring me breakfast."

"Gil was worried about you," Dani said as she took the stool where Malcolm had been sitting earlier. Her detective's gaze swept over the pill boxes, the scattered hangover cure ingredients, the used glass and the card of the day laying face up.

He hurried in a smooth cool guy way to turn the card face down and slide the others into a drawer. He began tidying his kitchen. "Pardon the mess. Don't usually have company so early."

"Yeah I remember last night you said no one ever sleeps over."

Malcolm paused. Fear swamped him but of a different caliber than the usual. "We talked last night?"

Dani snickered, eyeing him. "Yeah, you don't remember?"

"I… remembered you drove me home, helped me unlock the door…. I thought you said goodnight there."

"Nope. You needed help strapping down. I was the woman for the job."

Malcolm felt himself turn the same shade as his tomato based hangover cure. "Oh."

"Don't be embarrassed. You gotta do what you gotta do to be safe. Right? But it _ has _ got me thinking…" She eyed him. "You really never slept with anyone?"

Malcolm's head snapped up. "I've slept with people!"

"We're not talking about sex. We're talking about sleeping next to someone. You know. Spooning."

"I've spooned" Malcolm murmured sulkily.

"Not all night though."

"No, but big deal."

"I wanna help you out." Dani announced.

Oh, here it was. He had thought she would give him more time to prepare some speaking points. "Ah. listen, you are a good cop and a beautiful woman but--"

"Whoa, no. Not like that. Slow your roll, pumpkin. I spoon _ Gil _. Not you."

Malcolm's mouth clicked open and his brain ground to a halt. He laughed in a kind of nervous shock and tilted his head. "Uh. What?"

"Yeah. Me and Gil. About… 8 months now?"

Malcolm actually reared back a step. "No. No! Jackie died only eighteen months ago."

"Yeah."

"So his wife wasn't even dead a whole year when you--"

"Hey. _ You _ don't get to judge how people cope."

"Of course not. But that's Gil's excuse, not yours."

"The hell are you saying to me, Bright?"

"I'm saying don't you have any tact? Any social grace at all?"

She reared back in the shoulders and shifted on her feet. "Excuse me?"

"Jackie Arroyo was like a mother to me and you didn't even let her memory be mourned for a full year before you usurp it? Who do you think you are?"

Dani's face went stone hard. She didn't say anything for a beat or two and then she was in motion. She charged toward the door, passing him on the way by.

She slammed the box of scrambled eggs into his chest, smashing the weak greasy cardboard open and smearing it across his shirt. "Screw you, Bright."

She slammed the door on her way out.

***

Gil worked on his paperwork when a figure passed the windows of his office and paused at his open door. He looked up in time to see Malcolm poke his head in hesitantly. "Is this a bad time?"

Putting down his pen and snatching away his reading glasses, Gil leaned back in his chair. "Come in."

Malcolm entered and closed the door behind him. Gil smiled tightly at him. "You got a big problem, kid."

This made Malcolm pause and then wince as he dropped into his chair. "She told you?"

"What do you think?"

"Well…" he shifted in the chair like a boy in the principal's office. "Who's side are you on?"

"Malcolm, I'm sorry you found out that way. But it's not about you. This is between me and Dani."

"What about Jackie?" Malcolm snapped.

Gil darkened. "Jackie is dead."

"I know that."

"Do you? Because sending flowers after every chemo treatment isn't the same thing as watching her fighting spirit leave little by little until she actually stopped wanting to stay."

Malcolm looked stricken. Gil's eyes burned and he blinked it back. He slowly inhaled and regained control of himself. "I know you were busy doing important things. And she knew it. But, dammit, Malcolm, when she died, I saw you for a total of four hours. Four hours. And then you were gone again."

"Gil--"

"You have enough on your plate without wallowing in borrowed shit, I get that. And I don't blame you. But you will not pass judgement on me for choosing to not be alone for another moment longer than I could stand it."

"OK!" Malcolm cut in hurriedly with his hands up. He smiled apologetically. "OK you're right. It's your life. And I'm sorry. Really."

Gil exhaled, actively letting his anger go. The boy was sorry. It was enough. "It is my life… and I'm happy."

"It just caught me off guard. I thought she was…" He laughed at himself and rolled his eyes. "I thought she was there for me. Stupid."

It felt good to laugh after the fiery burst of resentment had touched the surface. "I told her you liked her."

Malcolm looked bashfully down at his hand. It must have shook a little because he was rubbing it, hard. "No. Not really. I mean she's beautiful but… but I'm better off on my own."

Gil sat with that a second, eyeing Malcolm and absorbing what his detective brain was picking up. 

Dammit. He exhaled through his nose. Dani was right. Malcolm needed someone. Maybe a few years ago the FBI and all his dad stuff had been legitimate reasons to break off every relationship right before they got too serious, but now Gil could see such was no longer the case. Malcolm had only learned how to magnify and project his brand of crazy like a shield.

He used it to hide behind. And as a result he was lonely and that loneliness was eating at him worse than the past. Because it was leaving way too much room for the past to take up residence.

Malcolm sat up straighter. "I'll apologize to Dani. Where is she?"

"Running down leads."

"New case?" his eyes flashed and he sat forward a little.

"Nothing for a profiler. Open and shut."

"Are you sure?"

Gil cut his eyes to Malcolm with a stern look that immediately cowed the ex-fed into slumping back into his chair. "Of course you're sure. You're a lieutenant in the NYPD. You know how to solve petty crime without me."

Smirking, Gil nodded toward the door. "Go on. I'll find out where Dani is and text you the address. You can catch her off guard and charm her into forgiveness."

Malcolm flashed a drop dead gorgeous smile. "Then maybe we can all have dinner tonight?"

"Sure. Now beat it. Some of us work for a living."

***

Some months later...

In the snowy park, Dani ducked under the police tape on the way out of the crime scene. Malcolm followed close behind. They both huddled against the winter wind as they headed for the car on the curb.

"Find out what she was doing for Valentine's Day," Malcolm said.

"Valentines? That's not for like 2 weeks."

"Trust me. She already had plans in place. Find out what they were and get back to me."

"OK. At this point, Bright, I'm not even gonna ask what your brain is gonna do with this information."

They walked on in silence for several steps before Malcolm looked over at her. "Are you really not going to ask?"

"Nope."

"Oh, come on," he smiled charmingly. "Let me show off."

Dani laughed as they reached the car, "If you want to show off, show me Malcolm Bright doing something I don't already know he's good at."

He scoffed and dropped into the passenger's seat as she got behind the wheel. "What is this? Setting me personal challenges to force me into growth? You're no fun anymore."

"Make your own plans for Valentine's Day," Dani said.

"No." he said, instantly.

"Make some or I will make some for you."

He threw her a sharp look. "We agreed you wouldn't be my mother."

"I'm not being your mother. She picks people she likes for her and expects you to like them. But my last pick for you was damn close, wasn't she?"

Malcolm rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Except for the whole Murderess thing she had going for her there at the end."

"A minor oversight on my part, but you have to admit, before we had to arrest her you guys were _ vibing _, right? Better than any of your mom's debutants?"

"She was.... Intriguing. Yes."

They had stopped at a light. Dani saw a young man walking by the car. He turned as he went, because he and Malcolm had locked eyes.

"Oh," she twisted to see. "What about that guy?"

Malcolm looked incredulous. "_ That _ guy?"

"Yeah, why not? I saw that eye contact. He gave you the once over and you looked at him, too. Let's tail him and fake a coincidence at a coffee shop or something."

Malcolm had descended into laughter. "No. Stop. Now you are officially worse than my mother."

"I want you to be happy!"

"So the plan is to literally chase random people down the street?"

"If there was a spark--"

"That guy was a hustler, Dani. He just low key tried to pick me up as his trick."

Dani blushed. She was usually good at spotting prostitutes. "So?" she broke down into a fit of laughter. "That's a dealbreaker for you?

Malcolm scoffed, shaking his head fondly. "Yes. Safe to say I don't have to buy sex on my way to find love."

She held up her hands in a sassy fake surrender. "Fine."

***

Some time after that...

It was finally too warm for a scarf. Malcolm took it off and wadded it into his coat pocket as he and Dani walked toward the morgue. Gil's car was at the curb, and he got out as they approached.

"Any luck?" Gil asked.

"Nah," Dani smirked. "Our boy says Berth is _ too gentle _ to strangle anyone."

Gil removed his shades with an eyebrow up. "Gentle? Really? That's the read you get on an MMA fighter?"

Malcolm shrugged. "His rabbit just had kits, Gil, and he was a proud mama about it. Couldn't wait to show them off. _ And _ there was a turtle in a tank."

Gil eyed him, then Dani, then him again. "Oh no. You're not going to…?"

"Ask out the giant muscled guy who we thought might have beaten his ex to death? No, Gil. The suspect list is not a dating app. We learned our lesson."

"By the way, LGBTQ Speed dating tonight. I already texted you the details."

"No."

"Why not?" Gil asked.

"Are you for real?" Dani scoffed. "JT almost killed Malcolm last time."

Gil scoffed and shrugged, "That was unfortunate, but I have checked and that is the only sibling JT has got. Now that you know what he looks like, you can stay away from him. Problem solved. It won't happen again. Come on."

"I'm not going." Malcolm said as someone stepped through the doors of the morgue. It was JT. Malcolm actually inched back from him as he approached but put steel in his spine and said, "One speed dating knock down drag out experience is my limit. By the way, JT, you owe me a new bird cage."

JT looked up from his notepad. He seemed harmless just now. Like the Hulk switch just hadn't been flipped yet, "You'll get it when I get the image of my baby brother in those restraints out of my head."

"We weren't even _ doing _ anything. He was just curious!"

"Don't give me that bull, man."

"It's the truth," Malcolm snapped. "And by the way, it's fundamentally weird that on Valentine's Day you were stalking your brother's instagram and thought it appropriate to bust into the apartment of the guy he's with. At night."

"Actually, I only break and enter after I happen to see your psycho eyes on his instagram in a selfie where you have your killer hands all over him."

"Alright, alright," Gil cut in. "Calm down. I thought you two said you were OK to work together."

Malcolm tenderly pressed on the bone beneath his eye. He sometimes thought his zygomatic must have fractured in the fight. JT had huge fists and a mean right hook.

"Gil, he's not speed dating anymore," Dani declared in her mama-bear-just-put-her-foot-down voice.

"Why not?" Gil cried. "Aside from JT's overreaction, it was working out for him. Right? Kid, back me up. How else will you meet anyone? Keep picking your way down suspect lists? Because I didn't like having to cuff a woman and then uncuff you."

"I go to coffee shops now," Malcolm announced. 

"People, " JT cut in, sounding bored. "Can we please put a pin in Bright's super special, indiscriminate search for love and get back to solving murder?"

They headed inside. 

"Good timing!" Edrisa announced as they walked in. She was bubbly, full of free smiles for Malcolm. "Um. The killer was short. And left handed."

Malcolm's eyes brightened like it was Christmas morning. "Show me." 

She lowered the sheet and he moved closer. "Beautiful suture work. As always."

"Thanks. Ah. Hm. Have a look at these faint bruises here…"

Malcolm put himself in the killer's shoes as Edrisa explained that the marking seemed to imply short stature and left handedness in the attacker.

The profile popped into his head so suddenly, he grabbed her shoulder.

"This means we could be looking for someone with a genuine Napoleon Complex!" 

Edrisa was frozen beneath his hand, not breathing or blinking. Malcolm returned her personal space quickly with a merp of an apology. She hurriedly stammered "N-no, I don't mind at all. At all."

Malcolm exhaled with a nervous laugh, glancing at the others. JT was jotting in his notebook, but Gil had a sparkle in his eye. And Dani was openly grinning.

Oh god. They had a new target. 

And Malcolm had no solid grounds to reject her. She actually was a splendid candidate; extremely intelligent with common interests--

Precisely the reason he had taken to simply ignoring all her clear signals in the first place. He wasn't sure he was ready. 

Malcolm refocused on the body with vigor. "Our killer is a male under the national average height."

"Someone who overcompensates by aggressive behavior. Perhaps even lying about his earnings, right?" Edrisa asked.

His heart literally swelled. He gulped. "Right! That's very good."

***

While Malcolm and Edrisa were leaning over a dead body, smiling nose to nose as they hashed out a profile, a silent relay was happening between Gil and Dani. 

_ Babe, do you see this?!? _Dani looked to be on the verge of a happy dance. 

_ I see it. _

_ They are so cute together! _

Gil nodded and crossed his arms with a squirmy grin on his lips. _ The solution was right in front of our noses. _

_ Right? Don't date suspects, date coworkers! Duh! Like we did! _

Gil was happy. This would even work out better for Malcolm, since they weren't in the same department. It would be sanctioned and everything. He sensed Malcolm's nerves, felt Dani about to speak. 

_ Don't embarrass him. _

Her mouth slanted._ I won't. I won't. _

JT flipped through his notes. "Okay. Morris is a short guy. I'll check his bank records."

Gil nodded. "Good. Powell, you do the same on the next shortest guy on our list, DeWitt." 

"I'll get to work on a more in-depth profile over some coffee at this new place I like," Malcolm said. He flashed a truly devilish smile at Edrisa, "I know it makes a rather poor first date conversation, but would you care to join me?"

Gil went breathless with pride. Such confidence. So smooth. 

Edrisa let out a squeak, as the rest of them tactfully tried to act like they didn't hear as they shuffled out. Gil made sure he was the last one out, having to literally drag Dani away by her elbow.

Behind him, he heard Edrisa respond, 

"I'd. Yes. I'd love to! Just let me get cleaned up."

Gil glanced back at Malcolm, who met his eye. Edrisa had hurried off, so he had the scared puppy dog look.

He had to hand it to the kid. When he decided to go for something he never did it halfway. Even when it scared him. 

Gil winked. "Good job, Bright."


End file.
